“Be careful not to brand new prospects as alcoholics. Let them draw their own conclusion. But talk to them about the hopelessness of alcoholism. Tell them exactly what happened to you and how you recovered. Stress the spiritual feature freely. If they are agnostics or atheists, make it emphatic that they do not have to agree with your conception of God. They can choose any conception they like, provided it makes sense to them. The main thing is that they be willing to believe in a Power greater than themselves and that they live by spiritual principles.” Do I hold back too much in speaking of the

spiritual principles of the program?

Meditation for the Day

“I will never leave nor forsake Thee.” Down through the centuries, thousands have believed in God’s constancy, untiringness, and unfailing love. God has love. Then forever you are sure of His love. God has power. Then forever you are sure, in every difficulty and temptation, of His strength. God has patience. Then always there is One who can never tire. God has understanding. Then always you will understand and be understood. Unless you want Him to go, God will never leave you. He is always ready with power.

Prayer for the Day

I pray that I may feel that God’s love will never fail. I pray that I may

have confidence in His unfailing power.

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What we, we really are, and what we are to

become depends upon what we are thinking,

for this is the way we are using relative power.

The science of Mind page 140

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Are we now ready to let God remove

from us all the things which we have

admitted are objectionable?

BB Into Action, p.76

This is how I would die into the love I have for you.

As pieces of cloud dissolve in sunlight.

Rumi

ACIM Workbook Lesson 243 Insights

“Today I will judge nothing that occurs.”

The body’s senses offer only bits of perception of the whole. In the “What is the world?” section that goes with this lesson, it refers to the body’s senses as “mechanisms of illusion.” It tells us that our senses are directed to go out and look for illusions. That’s what they were made for. In this world we have so thoroughly bought into believing the illusions are real, we think that the body’s senses show us reality.

Yet here we are told that all they bring us is witnesses to illusion. This makes our body’s senses wholly unreliable. And consequently any decision or judgment we attempt to make must be filled with uncertainty. We are trying to make decisions based on illusions. Beneath our outward show of certainty, there must always be an underlying awareness of the illusions this “certainty” is based upon. It is no wonder we walk through our days with at best a low level of anxiety.

This is why it is so important that we learn to turn to the Holy Spirit in our minds for guidance in every decision. We do not have the resources to make judgments on our own. The Holy Spirit sees the whole in its entirety. His vision reaches far beyond what we are aware of in our identification with the body. Yet His vision is always available to us. We need only let go of the arrogance of believing that we understand anything on our own. In the section in the Manual for Teachers, “As for the rest,” it tells us that learning to follow the Holy Spirit’s guidance is the core of the curriculum. It also says that it is the way out of hell for us and release from all guilt.

As I practice letting the Holy Spirit guide me through the day, His guidance does not always seem certain to me. But the uncertainty I feel is not because His guidance is anything but rock solid. It is because I still retain some belief that the body’s perceptions show me something of reality. It is this attempt to follow two guides that brings the uncertainty. And so I continue to practice remembering that of myself I can do nothing, for this allows the return of the power of God to me.

In truth, I cannot be “of myself.” It is this recognition that frees me to experience the certainty of Holy Spirit’s guidance. Today I will continue to practice following the Holy Spirit’s lead. Today I will walk toward freedom.

If I come to any conclusions based on what the physical senses show me, I will be mistaken. The physical or body’s senses were made to deceive. The body’s senses were made to replace Reality with illusions of separation. That is why it is not helpful for me to think that I already know based on what I have learned from the past through the body’s senses. That is why I must now learn to step back and open my mind to the Holy Spirit’s correction of my perceptions.

Only God’s Creation exists at all. What I am seeing through the body’s eyes are hallucinations of separation. And that means hallucinations of nothing. When I come to conclusions about what is real from these hallucinations, I am wrong and that is why I cannot judge anything in this world.

The Course says this world is an attack on God. I would step back from attacking God today. It only causes guilt and fear. Today my practice is to come to no conclusions on my own. I would practice opening my mind and listening to the only Source of all real power, to the only Source of all real peace. I would be guided. I will not lead. In this way my true direction becomes clear. In this way I am led out of the insanity of the ego thought system.

Remembering that I do not know on my own is the key to my inner peace and inner health. In this way I am helpful to myself and to the world. As I help myself, I help the Sonship, for we are one. I would open to the memory of the truth that all that is real is still one in God. Today I will judge nothing that occurs in this dream of separation.

Whew! I can see that I’m going to have a busy day reminding myself not to judge. I’ve only just read the lesson and have had to release judgment several times. I have proved over and over to myself that I cannot effectively judge what happens and yet, I hold stubbornly to judgment. I hope that today, I will make some progress in changing my mind about this.

The thought of being free of judging makes me feel lighter and happier. And that is just the possibility, what would it feel like to accomplish this?